Minus 20 degrees in Germany?
That could become a reality in February.
The reason for this is arctic cold air, which could also move in the direction of Europe.
Munich – Winter has broken in Germany again.
After mild temperatures had prevailed in many places in the past few weeks, there is now heavy snowfall again in large parts of the country.
But that could only be the beginning: In just a few weeks, from mid-February, "we are threatened with another really hard onset of winter," reports
Focus
.
This is because the northern hemisphere is flooded with cold arctic air.
It is still unclear how much Germany will feel of this.
In the most extreme case, however, temperatures of up to -20 degrees could be reached.
Arctic cold air in February: That's why it can get really cold
How is it that we could soon get -20 degrees in Germany?
According to the
Weather Channel
, this is related to the so-called polar vortex.
This is stretched and then pushed away.
Warm air then reaches the stratosphere, resulting in temperature deviations of up to 70 degrees.
Then it becomes important for the temperatures that you feel on Earth: The warm air that is in the stratosphere slowly sinks back to the ground and pushes the cold arctic air southwards.
As a consequence, this means that from mid-February there is a threat of an outbreak of Arctic air masses in the northern hemisphere and this could also affect Germany very acutely.
Arctic cold air in February: In 2018 there were already -20 degrees in Germany
Meteorologist Jan Schenk told
Focus
about the likelihood that Germany will feel some of the cold air: "If a high pressure area forms over Scandinavia, this high will draw in the ice-cold air from the north, lead it first towards Russia and then bend it Cold air off to Germany and reaches to England.”
Some may remember that there was already a cold air outbreak in Germany in 2018.
At that time there were low temperatures of -20.1 degrees.
It is then a very uncomfortable cold, often without snowfall: “This air is very dry.
When these air masses come to us via Russia, they cannot absorb moisture.
It's really crisp winter air," says Schenk.
(LP)